Google Now is perhaps the most innovative feature that has come out in the history of Android, with its ability to make life easier by providing information that people need automatically and without their input, by learning their habits and looking through their emails and other information. People even saw important info such as working petrol stations and shops during Hurricane Sandy, proving that Google Now can be very useful in daily life as well as during emergencies.
Now, it seems that Google Now may soon be coming to Google’s Chrome browser on the desktop, according to an issue listed on the code repository for the Chromium project, the open source web browser project on which Chrome is based. The issue is titled “Creating a skeleton for Google Now for Chrome implementation“, suggesting that Google Now for Chrome is indeed in some stage of development. The issue’s details mention that Google Now cards will be shown using desktop notifications (which enable users to get new email notifications on the desktop when Gmail is running in Chrome).
The mockup image above, cooked up by Peter of GSMArena, goes to show that Google Now notifications on the desktop would work quite well and bring all the usefulness of the virtual assistant app to Chrome. However, this could also be something related to only Google’s Chromebook, which runs Google’s Chrome OS and nothing to do with the regular browser at all. Also, since most of the information that Google Now provides is based on a user’s location, it might not be the full-fledged version as found on Android 4.1 (and above) devices and may only show info that it can glean from our emails, such as flight and package tracking data.
It would be awesome if we do get Google Now functionality on the desktop, specially with Chrome being one of the most popular browsers out there. Let’s see what the future holds though, and what the privacy advocates have to say on the matter.
Via: GSMArena | Source: Chromium Code Reviews
